Shanghai: China's ride-hailing leader Didi Chuxing said Friday it had raised more than $5.5 billion in new financing amid reports that the fund injection makes it the most valuable start-up in Asia with a worth over $50 billion. Beijing based-Didi, which claims nearly 90 per cent of China’s ride-hailing market after buying rival Uber's assets in the country last year, said it would use the money to “support its global strategy and continued investments in AI-based tech.”
Didi’s valuation makes it tops in Asia and number two in the world after Uber’s $68 billion, according to rankings by The Wall Street Journal. The fresh funding moves Didi past Xiaomi, which was at $46 billion. The WSJ’s rankings were based on companies “that are privately held, have raised money in the past four years and have at least one venture-capital firm as an investor.” Didi’s statement did not give details on who provided the fresh funds, but Bloomberg News, quoting people familiar with the situation, said the investors include SoftBank Group, China Merchants Bank, and an arm of China’s Bank of Communications.
Didi already lists among its investors Apple, Alibaba and Tencent. China legalised ride-hailing services in July last year and is the world’s largest market, fuelled by hundreds of millions of mobile-savvy Chinese millennials.
